Republican Convention Resumes

By Michael D. Shear
ST. PAUL -- President Bush will speak to the Republican convention delegates just before prime time tonight, kicking off the restarted political party for Sen. John McCain with a lineup that will include former senator Fred Thompson and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Both senators are longtime friends of McCain's and will vouch for his biography. Thompson's speech is titled "The Courage and Service of John McCain," and Lieberman's is titled "The Original Maverick, John McCain."

Convention planners and McCain officials said they had decided to relaunch their campaign after consultations with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and after monitoring the improving situation in the Gulf after a weakened Hurricane Gustav caused less damage than had been feared.

Campaign Manager Rick Davis said officials were working to shuffle the remaining days of the convention to accommodate speakers who did not get a chance to deliver remarks Monday. For example, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, originally scheduled for tonight, will likely speak on Wednesday, Davis said.

"Some of the elements that were scheduled for today will ultimately be lost in the annals of convention history," Davis conceded.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who remains out of the public eye while she prepares for her convention speech, is also likely to speak Wednesday, Davis said, though he declined to provide any details of the speech or say whether she would address any of the controversies
swirling around her.

"You're going to have to tune in to witness it firsthand," he said. "Obviously, it gives Gov. Palin a unique opportunity to have a conversation with the American public. It's a chance for her to get out there and tell her story and for people to see beyond the media fog that's out there."

In addition to the prime-time speakers, the convention will feature a speech by one of McCain's close friends, who adopted a little girl from the same Bangladeshi orphanage that the McCains did, a video about a medal of honor recipient, and a testimonial from Orson
Swindle, a fellow McCain prisoner of war.

Just as George W. Bush fired U.S. Attorneys who wouldn't do his bidding in carrying out his personal crusades, so it turns out McCain's VP pick has fired Alaska state employees for not doing hers.

Now finding herself under investigation by the Alaska State Senate, Palin's not just lawyered up, but already refining her Bush-Cheney stonewalling chops:

The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin's office in the Legislature's investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.

Palin has so far ducked interview requests from the investigators, and Alaska state legislators are already talking subpoenas.

To JC-
The media certainly weren't in the mood to cover non-tabloid issues with Obama, so why should they start with Palin?
There is some significant relevance, however, in paying attention to the disparity between the religiosity right's stand on issues of morality, and the way their convictions play out in their private lives.
Red states have more divorce, more unplanned pregnancies, more domestic violence, higher murder rates, more infant deaths, higher rates of incarceration, and lower educational achievement than blue states. They even watch more trashy shows on television.
Republicans take strong stands on moral issues that their real iives contradict. So far, Palin seems to fit this pattern of inconsistency.
Rather than fall for self-righteous talk, pay attention to those who walk the walk. It's time for the vocally righteous to take the cotton out of their ears and put it in their mouths. It might require some humility, but they could learn a few things and pull themselves out of this race to the bottom.

Sarah Palin: Separatist, former mayor of a village, and a wannabe book-burner:

[Former Wasilla mayor John Stein] says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

City librarian Mary Ellen Emmons [Baker] will stay, but Police Chief Irl Stambaugh is on his own, Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin announced Friday. The decision came one day after letters signed by Palin were dropped on Stambaugh's and Emmon's desks, telling them their jobs were over as of Feb. 13.

Both Stambaugh and Emmons [Baker] publicly supported Palin's opponent, long-time mayor John Stein during the campaign last fall. When she was elected, Palin questioned their loyalty and initially asked for their resignations. But Stambaugh said he thought any questions had been resolved.

Putting it simply, Sarah Palin's idea of executive leadership involves firing the people you perceive as non-supporters, and outright abuse of power.

If she were vice-president, would she call up librarians around the country and dictate to them? Would she invade our privacy like that? Try to equalize everyone by telling us what we can and cannot have in our libraries?

Finally, a quote. From Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451:

"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal... A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind."

O'Bama does not speak for my family values when he asks me to back off on this highly public matter ... Sarah Palin's FIRST RESPONSIBILITY is to her Down syndrome child and her 17 year old unmarried pregnant daughter. The down syndrome child will need special care and from a mother and father; the daughter will need reassurance (not just freedom and money) that her overly ambitious mother will not continue to forsake her and her younger sibblings as she pursues her power trips first with senator Ted Stevens; mayors and now as Governor of Alaska.

I am not sure why others are not seeing this for what it is. DAMN THE CHILDREN ... I want to represent women that the whining Hillary could not do!!

I pray for her children. GI Jane/Sarah should not be asking us to back off either when she knowingly accepted the nomination knowing that her children will be in focus. I love how my Republican friends are spinning all of this to show how strong she is on pro-life now telling us that the father of her daughters child plans to marry her daughter. This man also has another child outside of marriage. We Republicans have got to stand for something.

I am so sick of the media talking about Palin's daugher.
Can just move on and speak about the issues that are important to this country?
We all make mistakes and even at much older age. That baby will be a blessing to Bristol and his boyfriend and it will not affect what I think of Palin and her ability to perform as a possible VP.

And another day brings another embarrassment for McCain. This time, the Senator, who publicly condemns earmarks (to the point that he even has an anti-pork barrel spending video game on his website), learns that his running mate actually condons them. A lot:

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog. [...]

"In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla took in $6.1 million in earmarks -- about $1,000 in federal funds for every resident. By contrast, Boise, Idaho -- which has more than 190,000 residents -- received $6.9 million in earmarks in fiscal year 2008."

"She certainly wasn't shy about putting the old-boy network to use to bring home millions of dollars," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "She's a little more savvy to the ways of Washington than she's let on."

Oh, she's savvy in Washington ways alright. In fact, as the article notes, earlier this year, "Palin's office sent Sen. Stevens a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for the state of Alaska."

McCain recently called Palin his "soulmate." I guess opposites really do attract.

Republicans have a history of meeting serious problems with tough talk, patriotic and sentimental grandstanding, and officially sanctioned acts of hasty and reckless violence. What they don't have is a record of actually solving problems.

It's an abomination that they opened their convention on labor day. With all their blustery rhetoric nothwithstanding, the only war they've fought intelligently is the one against the American worker. nothhttp://washpost.com/wpniother
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Its nice to see the convention go back on track. It will be interesting to hear what Bush has to say. How will he endorse but not endorse McCain?

I agree with Kyle, Palin's speech is the most interesting one. Especially since her initial speech in Dayton, OH had several misrepresentations in it. She could turn the whole thing around with a well writen (not by her of course) and well delivered oratory.

I can't wait to see our next VP talking up there. I hope the camera gets a good shot of her tasty backside. She looks finger lickin good. Way to go Johnny! I bet Mitt asked if he could at least smell his finger.

Sarah Palin is the most exciting choice the GOP has had since Ronald Reagan. She is perfect in every way, so what if her daughter made a mistake, we all made mistakes at 17. The greater choice is that she is keeping the baby. A liberal would abort/ kill the baby and then use it's embryonic cells to try to cure the common cold in the name of progressive ideas.

I think Joe Lieberman has confused the original maverick with worshiping the golden calf that is today's Republican Party. Ten per cent shouldn't cut it as following a different path as McCain voted the Bush line 90% of the time by his own admission.

I dont know but every time I click a Washinton post link.. it feels like Im in the hatersKo website or moveback.org..I think it has to do with hacker...or somethin.??
Cultpersonality lovers?? get yours passport ready to travel to China/Cuba/N Korea for when Commander in chief John Mcsame get sworn in..

Looking forward to hearing from Palin and what she has to say. I don't care about her daughter or what her crazy brother in law did. She has the weight of the election on her shoulders, at the moment. If she can deliver big it'll shake everything up.

Same old, same old.. Watch the TV ratings, no one cares about the Republican convention because it's a re-run! They've heard the (empty) rhetoric, they've heard the distortions and lies. They've seen the policies in action and they don't help America, they Make It Worse!

The corrupt and failed ideology of the Republican Party has led America down the crapper.

I don't care what Joe says, McCain is NOT the original maverick. The original Maverick was South Texas rancher, war hero and politician Samuel Maverick who refused to brand his cattle. You can look it up.